second male introduction -> no good

[Louise~Nichols]

You're welcome Tom My thoughts here, not that you have to listen lol, is that maybe you should just scoop the little chap back into his home, leave him be for about a week and see if he makes another web. It may be that because of the frequency of introduction that he is also feeling a bit tired out too!The chances are that your matings have already done the job, but if you want to be sure, then let Eric have another pop at her in a weeks time. If she ignores him (or charges) at that point you at least have more of a confirmation that enough has been done already. You probably won't see her starting to *earthmove* for a few weeks yet though, they seem to start mucking about with the substrate after 6 to 8 weeks, and then she may start to lay silk down around 10 weeks. You'll see a different kind of bulk to her when she's heavily gravid...it's very different to just the usual chubby spider...the abdomen looks very taut and swollen rather than being just wide.

[Kate Arbon]

I'm rooting for you Tom, I'm in a similar position at the moment trying to mate my rosea.

I agree with what Louise says that maybe you should give the guy a week or two off. He might not be trying to mate because he's not made a fresh sperm web. I've heard Grammastola males can last 2 or 3 years after maturing so I don't think you need to worry about him being past it just yet. It would be a shame to try and rush things and end up getting him eaten when you could just wait a little longer.

I have only mated my pair once so far and I wasn't sure if my male had made a sperm web before then either (tho I'm hoping he arrived ready-loaded!). Now I'm just waiting for him to make another. As long as the male is healthy there's not really a time limit on how quick breeding should happen.

[Tom Forman]

I have been trying to mate these two for the past 3 weeks, I'm not going to wait any longer now, next week you'd tell me to wait another week

It's now or never.

Jordan has made the first move but she is slowly edging her way back again.

Eric is just watching her !

[Tom Forman]

He finally went and walked onto her.

It then looked like they did a few cartwheels together ending up here:



He was kind of hovering 5cm off the ground as you can see on the picture for about 10 seconds. No legs are touching the ground.

Then he got busy as you can see here:



I got a very good view of the palps, even if all my pictures turned out blurry...

Like the last few times he just rested them against her body and nothing more.

Then the retreat, alot of fang showing this time and I could have sworn Erics hairs were stood up like how a cat does it.

Guess that concludes my mating. I don't think it was a complete disaster, evry time so far the female has gotten more aggressive so I will just have to leave it at that and conclude she is gravid. Lets hope it is so.

Thank you for all your support through this.

Kate I wish you all the best with yours.

[Louise~Nichols]

I have been trying to mate these two for the past 3 weeks, I'm not going to wait any longer now, next week you'd tell me to wait another week

It's now or never.

LOL I knew you'd do your own thing!!

Now keep that girly well fed on a mixture of prey; crickets, morio worms etc and wait to see her fill out...perhaps you and Kate could both post some photos of your ladies 6 weeks from now so I can see if they're bulking up nicely...then fortnightly pics after that up til laying...it'll make a lovely online guide for anyone to read if they're just starting out in breeding too.
Good luck again, I'll look forward to the updates.